Health and Safety Executive: Pensions

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the cash equivalent transfer value is of the public sector pension of the Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Executive.

Anne McGuire: The total value of the remuneration package, including the value of the public sector pension, for the chief executive of the Health and Safety Executive is published each year, in June, in the annual accounts. In the latest published information available for 2006-07 accounting year the cash equivalent transfer value is £1,806,000.

Industrial Diseases: Compensation

Michael Clapham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether a mesothelioma compensation claim made under the provisions of the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill will be required to be submitted within 12 months of the diagnosis of the disease being made; what exceptions to a time limit for submission of claims will apply; and whether an award of compensation for mesothelioma will be required to be paid within six weeks of a claim being lodged.

Anne McGuire: There will be a 12 month time limit for claiming a lump sum payment under the new mesothelioma scheme proposed in the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill, but the time limit can be extended if there are good reasons for a delayed claim.
	The intention of the scheme is to make payments as quickly as possible and the 12 month time limit is designed to encourage claims to be made as quickly as possible after diagnosis to enable claimants to receive money in life; it is not intended to exclude people from receiving a payment at all.
	For this reason, we intend that the 12 month time limit to claims to the new mesothelioma scheme from sufferers during the scheme's first year of operation.
	We expect lump sum payments under the new mesothelioma scheme to be made within six weeks of a claim, although this is not a legal requirement.